


That figure skating AU

by AtLAstuff



Series: That figure skating AU [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Getting Together, M/M, Oblivious Zuko, Plotholes probably, Use of correct modern day figure skating terms, figure skating AU, oblivious sokka, set a bit after the last episode, this was supposed to be 2k words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 23:46:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17518124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtLAstuff/pseuds/AtLAstuff
Summary: Sokka couldn't wait to get back on the ice and practice his figure skating again once they got back home. One problem though; none of his three friends were even aware of his hobby to begin with.Oh, and he has a growing crush on his friend Zuko.





	That figure skating AU

**Author's Note:**

> I was writing a soulmate AU for Zukka week but I realized I could never finish it in time so I decided to finish this one first to at least have something to share this week. Happy Zukka week!

There was one thing that Sokka missed most of all during his time away from the southern watertribe next to his grandmother, and that was ice skating. Or rather, figure skating. He hated to admit how much he loved the sport, it isn’t exactly very manly after all, but there were so many reasons why he loved it. The wind on his cheeks, the way how he could glide over the ice, flawlessly jump an axel or do a sits pin, it gave him some kind of control. The same way Aang probably felt while in the air with his glider. Perhaps he could have asked Katara and Aang to freeze a patch of water during their adventures, it had certainly crossed his mind a couple of times, but he didn’t exactly bring his skates with him either so it didn’t really matter.

The Northern watertribe actually did have an ice rink, something the southern watertribe definitely didn’t have. He had been exploring one day while his sister and Aang were having their waterbending practice and stumbled upon it. He didn’t even know there was such a thing as an “ice rink” at first. Skating indoors? On well-kept ice? Having skated outdoors on the smoothest patch of ice he could find all his life, the concept certainly sounded very appealing. They also had people who seemed to know how to skate pretty well too, while he had been there he actually saw a group of boys doing some sort of teamsport as well, and he wanted to stay and see if there were any figure skaters as well. Maybe he could even learn something new! But then he got caught up on… other things. 

Now, however, he was almost home and he barely could keep his excitement contained, both to see Grangran and everyone he hadn’t seen in so long, and to skate again. He wasn’t alone though, Katara had insisted Aang should come with, and Aang had insisted Zuko should come, as some kind of holiday from all the work he had to do after becoming Fire Lord. Aang had also insisted on Toph to join them, but she wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of being miles and miles away from any type of land, or the idea of wearing warm shoes. 

Things had definitely changed after the war. Sokka and Zuko grew kind of close over those past few months, perhaps a bit too close. And if anyone were to tell Sokka he blushed every time someone even merely talked about Zuko in his presence, he’d deny and say it was just a trick of the light. He couldn’t fool himself, he was also aware that the things he felt for Zuko seemed pretty close to the things he felt for Yue and Suki, but maybe he could fool others. Suki and him had split up on good terms a bit after the war ended, mainly because they just wanted different things from life. Either way it didn’t really matter, Sokka knew Zuko probably didn’t feel the same, maybe would even be grossed out by his little crush, but he was perfectly fine keeping his feelings hidden for the time being. He was sure he was going to get over them too if he really tried. 

“I can almost see land! Well... ice!” Aang announced with a big smile. They had been flying for days and Appa seemed pretty excited about the idea of resting once they got there. 

“Tell me why I’m here again?” Zuko said almost asleep at this point, even though it was mid-day. 

“For me?” Sokka joked, and for a second he thought he saw Zuko blushing, but told himself it was probably just from the cold or that his mind was playing tricks on him. 

Katara on the other hand rolled her eyes. “Don’t act like you don’t want to be here, it didn’t take much convincing for you to come with!” And it hadn’t. It had actually been surprisingly easy to get Zuko to come along. He really needed the little vacation. 

“Your grandma is gonna hate me, isn’t she?” He sighed. 

“Well yea, Grangran isn’t exactly keen on anyone in the Fire Nation... but she also trusts us enough. If you don’t give her any more reasons to hate you, she’ll get over it quickly.” Sokka tried to calm him, and Aang added a quick “don’t worry, she didn’t like me either at first”. 

The conversation fell silent and after 10 more minutes of flying they had finally reached the Southern Water Tribe. Before Zuko and Aang could even get off Appa, Sokka and Katara were already sprinting towards their grandmother, who happened to be outside, pulling her into a big hug. 

“Grangran! We missed you so much!” Katara was holding back her tears. 

“I heard the war is over, and you two had a big role in it! I am so proud of you!” Their grandmother assured them. “I am so happy to see you two again! I missed you so much!”

“About that, Grangran there’s someone I want you to meet...” Sokka started. “Uh... this is Zuko... Fire Lord Zuko to be exact” why was he blushing? His grandmother eyed both him and his sister and then glanced over to look at the other boy. 

“A fire Lord, hu?” She glared. 

“He’s not nearly as bad as Ozai, I promise! He helped to end the war as well!” Katara chimed in. “And Aang’s here too!” 

Not caring too much about the avatar, their grandmother now fully turned towards Zuko, who quickly bowed in response. “I remember you, you invaded and wrecked our town while in search of him!” She pointed at Aang. 

“But he’s a changed person now, I promise!” Sokka tried. “I know it’s hard to believe, but we really do trust him now! He hasn’t started another war, right? ha ha,” Sokka awkwardly chuckled. 

“Very well. I will give you the benefit of the doubt for now. But only because my grandchildren seem somewhat fond of you.” She turned to Aang. “As for you, thank you, young avatar” she bowed and walked away, not saying anything more. 

“That could’ve gone a lot worse!” Aang smiled as soon as she was gone. 

“She hates me!” Zuko said. 

“No she doesn’t! Okay maybe a bit, but hey, at least she didn’t throw you out! Let’s just get inside,” Sokka threw an arm over Zuko, trying to look as casual as possible, telling himself it was only because Zuko was extremely warm and he wasn’t used to the freezing temperatures anymore. 

~~ 

All day, Sokka had been trying to think of a way to go ice skating. There was only one major issue: neither Aang nor Zuko knew of his hobby, and Katara was only vaguely aware. Most of the time when he was younger he used to sneak out at night to practice. Maybe that was an option for tonight as well. Grangran snapped him out of his train of thought.  
“For tonight, there are three rooms available. Aang you can get a room alone. Katara can go to her room and Sokka to his. Zuko, you can go sleep in Sokka’s room.” She said, and added in a mumble “and i better not catch you in Katara’s room, with kids these days...” before turning around and walking away again.  
‘If only she knew’ Sokka thought. He wondered if and when Katara and Aang were going to announce their relationship to their grandmother, and what Zuko had done to raise suspicion from his grandmother about his intentions with Katara.

“I’m going to get a fire going, so we can start cooking dinner” Sokka said.

“Let me!” Zuko already had a flame in his hand, Katara quickly nudging him to quit before their grandmother saw him firebending. “oh, right,” He might be the Fire Lord, but that doesn’t mean she’d exactly be thrilled with him bending fire anywhere near the tribe again after last time. For now, it was best to keep his bending to the absolute minimum. 

~~ 

Sokka only had a double bed, but it was big enough for the two of them to lay without touching each other. It still made Sokka blush thinking about how close they were to each other. 

“Do you think she hates me?” the other suddenly asked. 

“I’m sure she doesn’t. Why do you even care so much?” 

“She’s important to you, isn’t she?” 

“If i didn’t know any better, I’d think you’re trying to impress my family!”

“I am!” Zuko said and shut up right away, almost as if he had said too much. 

“Ohh, and why’s that? Why does it matter? Next week we’re gone again. You maybe never have to even see her again. It really doesn’t matter if she does. Although I’m sure she’ll come around either way.”

“Nevermind, it doesn’t matter. Goodnight Sokka” he could feel Zuko uncomfortably shifting. 

“But-“

“Goodnight!” 

Silence.

Sokka laid awake, waiting for Zuko to fall asleep. He had a plan after all. He wondered why Zuko wanted so badly to leave a good impression on Grangran. Maybe he had truly changed and cared what people thought of him. He mentioned her being important to him... or maybe he had meant them, as in Katara and Sokka, when asking that question. What if Zuko did actually have a crush on his sister and -... no. Sokka quickly shook his head to get rid of the thought. After a while, he was so deep in his thoughts he had almost not noticed Zuko’s light snoring from next to him. As quickly but carefully as he could, he stood up and crawled under the bed, hoping they’d still be there. He was relieved to find his skates still there, fully in tact just like when he had left. He quickly looked at the blades, which felt kind of dull after all this time. It had been a while since he had sharpened them even before they left, so he took a mental note to do that before he was gone again. 

He quickly and quietly sneaked out, going to the place he knew used to have good and even piece of ice without too many bumps he could potentially break his legs on. He quickly tied his skates, stood up, and skated for the first time in so long. He felt so good being back on the ice. Even though he had been flying around the world on a flying bison for the past few months, only now he felt truly and utterly free. He closed his eyes while skating around a bit more, simply just letting the ice guide him. After a while he decided it was time to do some tricks he had really missed doing. He knew he probably shouldn’t be doing double jumps right after being off the ice for so long, hopefully tomorrow he could, but for now he started with a simple waltz jump. Slowly doing more difficult jumps, going from single salchow to toe, to loop, to flip, and finally lutz. He felt like he was ready to try at least an axel, seeing if he still could rotate the full turn and a half. Luckily for him, he had sometimes sneaked off while the others were practicing their bending to do some of the jumps off the ice, just to not lose the technique. No one had ever noticed of course. Even though it wasn’t the cleanest of jumps, he was still pleased with his axel for now, moving on to practice some spins. Upright spin was easy enough, and so were sit spins. His camelspin could probably use some practice (okay, a lot of practice) but he wasn’t the most flexible person to begin with. Just as he went into another sit spin, he heard the sound of footsteps in the snow. He quickly looked around, a bit paranoid perhaps, wanting to know who of his village was even awake at this hour, hoping they definitely wouldn’t have seen him skate, and then suddenly-... 

“ZUKO!” He was so startled he actually fell, which just led to more embarrassment. He could skate so well and now he just fell while standing still! He was never going to live this down. 

“Sokka, I didn’t know-... I’m sorry I interrupted something” Zuko seemed about just as embarrassed as him. 

“What are you doing here?”

“You were suddenly gone! I was worried so I looked for you! Then i heard vague cracking of ice so I came here and saw you skate! Well, I barely saw anything, I only just arrived and it’s pretty dark. Why didn’t you tell me you could do all this stuff?” He almost looked hurt.

“Fine! I like figure skating, okay? Yes you can laugh at me, go on!” Sokka said, now almost angry even though nothing in Zuko’s voice exactly sounded like he was mocking him. 

“Why would I do that?”

“What you don’t think it’s too girly for a man to like figure skating?”

“Frankly, I wasn’t even aware this was a thing... it’s not exactly like I have been on holiday to places with ice available or anything like that! The only times I even saw ice was when...” he trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. When he invaded the Water Tribes. 

“It’s kind of like dancing? But on ice? It’s mostly a girls thing I suppose because of the elegance but-“

“Well it’s not like you were being exactly the most elegant right now but-“ Zuko started and Sokka glared. 

“Oh I’m sorry mister Figure Skating Expert! I wasn’t aware I was being watched and judged!” He puffed, sitting down again to take his skates off. It had been enough for today. Admittedly, he was pleased with the fact that he didn’t totally lose all of his jumps and spins.

“Hey I didn’t say that! It looked good actually! Just not... elegant like a girl!” Zuko saw Sokka’s sour face hadn’t changed yet. “But not bad! I obviously know nothing about it but you looked really good! I mean... the skating looked really good!” He looked at the ice, faintly blushing, only barely visible in the dark of the night. 

“Come on, let’s go back inside. I’m getting cold.” Sokka said not wanting to look too much at the other, taking his skates in one hand. 

Both said nothing on the way back. Zuko figured Sokka probably wanted to keep it a secret so talking on their way back, potentially waking someone, didn’t seem like the best idea.

Back in bed, Sokka was still cold. After all, the warm Water Tribe clothing with fur lining weren’t exactly the best to sport in so he had taken most of them off, forgetting his thinner sweater back in his room so skating with his undershirt only, resulting in him being cold for the rest of the night probably. 

“You’re cold. I can feel it even over here.” Zuko noted. 

“I’m aware.” 

“You can... lay a bit closer to me if you want? I’m always really... warm” it sounded awkward.

Sokka snorted and shifted a bit closed to him, their sides barely touching. “Goodnight, Zuko” 

“Goodnight, Sokka”

And well, if Sokka tried to snuggle a bit closer to his friend during the night, that was only because of the extreme cold of course. 

~~

The first thing Sokka noted when he woke up was how warm he felt. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet, trying to snuggle closer to the heatsource, half still asleep. It took him a good minute to realize they were in fact in an tent, and he very much shouldn’t be this warm, unless- 

“ZUKO!” Sokka scrambled up. “Uh... I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to-... I was cold and so-... how long have you been awake?”

“A while. I wake up when the sun comes up, it’s in my nature I guess.” Zuko awkwardly sat up as well. “It’s a firebenders thing.”

“Look I’m sorry I-”

“It’s fine, it’s cold here and I’m not. I understand.”

“Yea you’re pretty hot.” Sokka said without thinking, panicking almost right away “I MEAN! NOT LIKE THAT! I suppose a bit but-... no what I meant was you’re very warm. Yes. As in temperature. Uhhh gotta go, help Grangran with... cooking fish. Bye” he blurred all out at once and sprinted out of the tent as fast as he could, leaving a (probably shocked) Zuko behind in the process. 

Aang who had been outside looked at the boy sprinting away with big eyes. “Sokka what are you doing? Running a marathon first thing in the morning? Is there a giant spider in your bed?”

“Arg no! It’s just- I’ve said some stupid stuff okay” he facepalmed and then proceeded to put his hands on his cheeks, trying to cover up the pink tone they had gotten. Did he really accidentally call Zuko hot? And not even in a smooth way! All he could hope was that Zuko didn’t take it that way. 

And then he remembered last night. He had been so happy to be on the ice again, to skate again, to feel totally free again. He didn’t think anyone would find out, and definitely not Zuko, who, like he said before, rose with the sun. Shouldn’t he be a deep sleeper during the night then? It only seemed logical...  
He thought about his embarrassment when the other found him, fully expecting to be laughed at. But all he saw was some kind of level of fascination almost.  
Would he tell Katara and Aang? Would they laugh at them? Katara and Grangran somewhat knew about his skating, but definitely not about the level he was on. Aang would probably think it’s cool, wanting to try it himself. Maybe Aang could do a quad axel, something that has never been done before as far as he knew (not that he exactly knew what other skaters on the North Pole could or could not do), or even more with a little help of his airbending, but what would be the fun in that? Sokka liked the practicing aspect, feeling how you get better over time. The satisfaction of landing a jump for the very first time after so many hours of practice. 

“Sokka? Earth to Sokka?” Aang waved his hand in front of his face. 

“Hu? What?” 

“I’ve been asking you where Zuko is for the past 5 minutes, you seemed really out of it.”

“I was just thinking, but it’s fine! Zuko is still in bed I think... Where’s Katara?”

“She went to Grangran, maybe you should go too? You two haven’t seen her in a long time I’m sure she missed you a lot and wants to spend as much time with you as possible. Zuko and I can go do something else meanwhile? Ohh! Maybe he’ll go penguin sliding with me?” The boy looked very excited at the idea, already moving towards the tent.

“Okay, see you later Aang!”

~~

“Ah Sokka, there you are! You’re still a long sleeper I see!” Katara and Grangran sat at the main table together, catching up on all the things that happened while they were gone. 

“I’m... pretty worn out from all the traveling.” He said as excuse, silently adding ‘and going skating in the middle of the night’ in his head. 

“I hope you and the Fire Lord weren’t up all night talking! You’re not here for too long, I don’t want you going to bed late at night and sleeping half the day away!” His grandmother looked sternly at him. 

Katara quickly chimed in. “I wouldn’t be too afraid of that, Grangran! Zuko wakes up very early, as soon as the sun rises. If he can wake up, so can Sokka, right?” 

“Uh yes! She’s right!” He wondered why Zuko indeed hadn’t woken him up earlier today. He must have been awake for a while before Sokka woke up, seeing how late it already was. He probably just didn’t want to disturb him, just being the good friend that he’d grown to be. 

“Enough talk about sleep! So Sokka, please tell me more about all the masterplans you came up with during the time you were away.” Grangran smiled, and so did the pair of siblings. There was indeed a lot to tell. 

~~ 

by the time the three had been done talking, it was already late enough for dinner. They hadn’t seen Aang and Zuko all day, the two probably aware the siblings needed a bit alone time with their grandmother. The whole town was having dinner together outside in celebration of the return of Katara and Sokka, and Aang beating Ozai. 

“Katara! Sokka! We went penguin sliding!” Aang jumped up as soon as he saw the three walking outside. “It was awesome! Zuko seemed to struggle a bit though, I don’t think the whole cold and ice and water does him very good... but it was still so much fun!” Aang kept on talking to Katara whilst Sokka went to sit next to the other boy. 

“Penguin sliding hu?” He cocked an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t have guessed you as the type to do that.”

“Yea, I wasn’t very good at it at all. But Aang seemed pretty happy and there wasn’t much to do anyway... I actually fell of the penguins 4 times, I don’t think they like me very much!” He averted his eyes. 

“Of course they don’t! They’re not exactly the biggest fan of having a person on their backs, leave alone a person as tall as you,” he smiled. “But it’s okay, I’m not amazing at it either.”

~~ 

After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms. There was no awkward atmosphere from this morning left between the boys, which Sokka was grateful for. He had pushed him calling Zuko hot very far back in his mind. 

“Are you going skating again tonight?” Zuko asked quietly as they both lied side by side, now with quite the bit of space between them again. 

“I guess so... I haven’t really thought about it yet. I need to wait until the town is asleep again before I can go though.” 

“Why can’t you just show them? Why do you have to wait ‘till everyone’s asleep?”

Yea, why did he? Sure there was the fear of being teased, but on the other hand, he’d just get teased for something else otherwise. Maybe it was selfish, but he also liked the aspect of having something totally for himself. Something he didn’t have to share, and something he was better at than his friends. Sure it seemed petty but Katara had her waterbending, Zuko had his firebending, Toph had her earthbending, and Aang had his whole avatar stuff going on. But skating was his thing, even if no one knew about it. 

“What if I don’t want to?”

“I’m sorry I snuck up on you yesterday, I really didn’t mean to.”

“It’s fine, at least you didn’t laugh at me,” he shifted uncomfortably on the mattress. 

“Of course I wouldn’t. I was really impressed actually. Sokka could I-...”

“What?” He looked over his shoulders just to see the other boy turned away, with his back towards him. 

“Nothing, nevermind.”

There was a long silence, so long Sokka thought Zuko might have fallen asleep. He guessed most of the town was asleep by now as well so it was safe to stand up and take his skates back from under his bed. 

“Sokka, could I come with you?” 

“Hu? Why?” The other boy got startled.

“I’ve never seen this sport before, I want to know more about it,” he said.

“Uh... yea... I guess so... Let me quickly change my clothes though.” he disappeared behind the screen in his room to redress, not wanting to make the same mistake as last night. He didn’t exactly have a lot of clothes well-fitted for sports, the South Pole was a cold place after all, but luckily he still had a light sweater in his closet that Grangran once made for him. He wasn’t certain why she did it, but he was thankful for it either way. 

And so, when Sokka had changed and had taken his skates in his hand, the two boys snuck out. They didn’t talk on the way there in order to not wake anyone, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence at all. 

“Are you just going to stand there?” 

“What else do you want me to do?”

“I don’t know-... It’s fine. I’m quickly going to warm up and get some ice feel, and then I will show you some tricks I learned over the years!” Suddenly feeling confident, he quickly winked at the other boy before skating off as fast as he could, not wanting to see Zuko’s reaction. Friends could wink at each other right? It’s just to be playful of course. 

“My first trick, will be all the single jumps up till lutz! now watch carefully, there are 6 different jumps with different entrances. The first one is waltz jump, then salchow, then toe loop, then loop, then flip and finally lutz,” Zuko just looked at him silently, clearly impressed by all the different jumps there were, but also definitely a bit lost by it. It had taken Sokka a while to remember all the names too.

Sokka had to admit that an getting outside edge on his lutz was something he still struggled with, but the other boy didn’t need to know that. He probably couldn’t see the difference between flip and lutz either way, correct edge or not.  
Except for the slight edge problem though (which wasn’t even visible to the untrained eye), everything went great. 

“I was scared you were going to make a hole in the ice with those jumps where you pick in the ice before jumping off.” Zuko said quietly when Sokka stood in front of him again after his little showcase. 

“yea… that has happened once before.” Sokka tried not to think of that time as he had actually straight up fallen through the ice as well. He quickly changed the subject. “Now, there is one more single jump as they say, but it has more rotation than the others. This is an axel and has one and a half turns of rotation.” He skated off, taking a deep breath and then flawlessly landing an axel.

“that looks difficult.”

“it is! It took me over a year to master it, but when I finally did I was so happy! and I landed my double salchow only a few weeks after because I already got used to the extra bit of rotation. Which leads me to my next point: double jumps. Now I must admit, I can only do salchow and toeloop well. Loop is a bit under rotated, and flip I’ve only landed a couple of times. Lutz isn’t exactly my jump either. I’ll show you the first four though.”

Salchow and toeloop went well as expected, and loop was a bit under rotated like he had feared but he highly doubted Zuko had noticed. Again, his mistake was one that would go unnoticed to the untrained eye. He felt his nerves swell up now it was time for the flip. He had only landed it a couple of times before after all. What if he fell? Would Zuko think his skating skills were bad? Would he laugh? Should he just skip the flip? This overthinking really didn’t help him though, because his concentration was totally gone by the time he picked in the ice and took off. And then, he fell. 

“Are you okay?” Zuko’s voice sounded panicky, clearly not knowing what to do.

“Of course I am! It’s just part of the sport.” he pulled himself up mildly embarrassed, feeling the warmth in his cheeks. “You can laugh at me now.”

“Laugh? Why would I do that?”

“Because I fell?”  
“So? Sokka, most of us fall just trying to walk on ice, leave alone with your... knife-shoes over there!” Zuko argued. 

“They’re called skates! And actually, sometimes skating is a lot easier than walking. You see, with skates you have a much smaller surface to stand on, but the blade has more grip on the ice because-”

“Sokka-”

“When the blade glides over the ice it kind of settles in and-”

“Sokka!”

“I’m sorry,” he apologized for going on a rant about a subject he knew Zuko probably didn’t care much about. He just wasn’t used to being able to share the information about his sport with other people. Sometimes he just got overexcited. 

“It’s fine! My point was, you’re really good at your sport, regardless if you fall or not. Failing is a part of learning! The amount of times I got burned while firebending... “ he trailed off. 

Sokka could help but grin. “Well, well, well, look at you with your deep speech about failing and learning! You’re starting to sound like your uncle, all you need is a proverb here and there and you’re good to go!”

“I’m sure uncle would be glad to hear that,” he laughed lightly. “I think uncle would’ve liked to see your skating too. Although he’s probably more aware of the sport than I am, considering he seems to know everything.”

“Grangran would probably like Iroh, even with his history in the war,” Sokka knew this wasn’t the place to hold conversations like this, they were in the middle of a patch of ice on the South pole, it was way too cold for this. But Sokka also loved to hear Zuko talk about his uncle. He was grateful the other had an uncle like Iroh too. Who knows where he would’ve ended up if he didn’t. 

“Pfft, uncle would probably just try and flirt with her,” he sighed. “So what’s your next move?”

“hu?”

“Skating?”

“Oh yea, right uh...” he said, confused from the sudden topic change. Having no more new jumps he could successfully show him, he thought of something else. “Well, I could show you some footwork, but I’ll be honest, that isn’t exactly my strong point and is more of a warming up thing anyway. So, spins it is. First: backwards upright spin,” he knew this would impress the other. Sure the spin was easy if you knew how to do it, but it was also fast, and a lot of rotations. He easily stayed in the spin for about 20 rotations, exiting with a simple landing position. 

“How do you not get dizzy?!” Zuko looked downright shocked. He had probably seen some of his spins yesterday, but his backwards spin was the fastest by far. 

“I don’t know actually… I used to in the beginning, but the more I practiced, the more I lost the ability to feel dizzy. Although I must admit, I feel it now a lot more again than before we left here. You probably just get used to it.”

“You must have missed it while you were gone.”

“Yea, I did. But hey, at least I was busy all the time with running away from you and helping Aang to defeat the Fire Lord so I didn’t have too much time to think about it,” he grinned again, regretting it almost instantly seeing Zuko’s reaction. Only now he noticed how he was towering over the other, his skates making him at least 5 cm taller. “Speaking about that, if anyone would’ve told me a year ago I’d now be talking to Fire Lord Zuko’ , about skating for all things, I would’ve probably laughed in their face.”

“Crazy how life is sometimes,” Zuko looked away. 

“Back when-”

“Sokka, can we not talk about that?” he looked uncomfortable. “besides, aren’t you getting cold?” quickly changing the subject.

“Good point. Okay so the next thing I will show you is a camel spin. Flexibility is key here!” he went into his spin, full on forgetting how bad his flexibility actually was for a second. He did everything in his power to hold his leg up as high as possible, which didn’t end well at all. “ouch!” he stepped out of the spin, clearly having hurt his inner thighs in the process, trying to act like nothing had happened. 

“Now, that’s what happens when you try to be too much of a show-off!” Zuko laughed at his misery. 

“Hey! you try it then!”

“But I never claimed to be mr. Flexible here!”

“Okay, Okay, maybe flexibility isn’t exactly my strongest point either,” he puffed. “Ty Lee would be good at this sport.”

“She’s good at every sport.”

~~

This time, Sokka didn’t wake up on top of Zuko. In fact, Zuko wasn’t even in bed anymore.  
Maybe he had gone to practice his bending? It would be a bad idea of course, but if he was far enough away from the village…  
Or maybe he went to explore the village a bit more. Or perhaps he didn’t want any awkward situations again so he made sure to be gone by the time Sokka was awake. Whatever it was, he somewhat missed the warmth he had experienced yesterday morning. Knowing he couldn’t stay in bed for too long after what his grandmother had said though, he quickly got out of bed. They had stayed for about an hour more yesterday night, both to show off some more skating but also to just talk a bit. As much as he was enjoying it last night though, he was really tired now. Luckily it was only for a week, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to keep on sneaking out at night without probably falling asleep on the ice. But for now, he could endure sleep deprivation if it meant more skating and more talking to Zuko. 

“Ah, Sokka! We were just done!” Katara stood up as soon as she saw her brother emerge from the tent. Zuko sat next to her, looking pretty awkward, his face somewhat, okay no, very red. “See you later,” she gave no further explanation and just walked away. 

“What were you talking about?” He sat next to Zuko. 

“Nothing,” he said. 

“It didn’t seem like nothing.”

“Can’t your sister and I just talk without there being a bigger reason behind it?”

“You were blushing,” Sokka noted. “A lot as well.”

“I was not! It was… the cold!”

“Were you blushing because of Katara? You know she’s together with Aang right?” He raised his voice only slightly, not wanting the entire village to hear, but he also couldn’t ignore the bit of jealousy stirring up in his chest. 

“What? Of course I know!” Zuko seemed to be even more shocked and awkward now.

“Then why are you all blushing?”

“Look it doesn’t matter. I promise you I don’t have a crush on your sister if that’s what you’re implying here,” he looked straight at Sokka, making sure the other knew he wasn’t lying. “I will tell you about it later, but I really can’t right now, okay?”

“Fine,” Sokka gave in. 

~~ 

Another day went by and this time Grangran had decided to interrogate Aang and Zuko without her two grandchildren anywhere near. Just to be sure the two siblings had indeed been in good hands the past few months.

“She’s a bit terrifying,” Zuko noted once back in the tent. 

“She can be but she means well. She just doesn’t want to lose any more family so she’s protective over us.” 

“She said that. I thought she was going to kill me on the spot when I told her I sent an assassin after Aang, bringing you all in danger meanwhile,” Zuko said casually, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Sokka facepalmed, was he really this stupid? “Why would you tell her that?!” 

“It’s the truth! And she asked for the whole truth! Afterwards she seemed to appreciate my honestly though, I don’t think she hates me as much anymore now.”

Sokka was at least glad to hear that.

“Are we going skating tonight?”

“We?”

“Well, you. I can just watch again.”

“I don’t have any new tricks to show you, I showed you everything I can do yesterday,” he said. 

“But you still need to practice right? You’ve watched Aang and I practice firebending, that was also just the same thing over and over. Practice makes perfect.”

“I should probably tell you though, skating practice involves a lot of falling and I-”

Zuko cut him off, “Do I need to start my speech about falling being an important step in learning again?”

“Fine! You can come! But don’t say I didn’t warn you when it starts to get boring.”

A smile appeared on Zuko’s lips. 

~~ 

He had been on the ice for much too long, almost three hours. They had barely spoken during that time, at one point Zuko even dozed off somehow, just lying there in the snow. Sokka had been worried he’d get sick, but he also looked too tired to wake him back up until he was ready to leave, so he didn’t. 

Once they were back, Zuko started speaking again though. “I’m sorry I fell asleep.”

“Hey it’s fine! I told you it was gonna be boring.”

“No it’s not that, I’m just very tired from waking up so early.” Even Zuko looked a bit cold now after lying in the snow for so long. Maybe he should’ve woken him up after all. But even if he was cold, he certainly tried his best to hide it. The only thing that gave it away was how he curled in a ball in bed, fully hugging the blankets, whereas he normally lied pretty much fully stretched out. Not that Sokka would know, of course. “How did you even learn all this stuff? Are there teachers here?”

“No, not that I’m aware of. One day I had to help someone clean up his house. His wife had just died and it was too painful for him to do it all alone. He told me to keep one of the boxes, saying it contained scrolls. He thought they were waterbending scrolls from her grandmother who had been taken away when the war started, he thought Katara might could at least use them so they wouldn’t go to waste. When I got home with the box though my curiosity got the best of me and I looked inside. Instead I found scrolls about figure skating. I was intrigued because I already enjoyed just skating around before that, but never thought to do it as some kind of artistic sport. At first Katara and Grangran knew, but the better I got, the less I told them when I went skating. They probably think I gave it up a few years back.”

“You learned that all from scrolls?” 

“It wasn’t the easiest thing, but yes. I’m sure my technique probably isn’t anywhere close to what it is supposed to be, but it does somewhat work. And I enjoy skating a lot.” Sokka said. 

“I can tell. You look so happy while skating! Still though, the fact that you learned that all from scrolls, no masters or teachers involved is pretty amazing. You’re probably really talented. That’s like, if you’d learn sword fighting from just scrolls!”

Sokka snorted. “It’s really not the same, believe me, I have had lessons in sword fighting before.”

“Still, it’s really amazing.”

Sokka was glad Zuko couldn’t see him as he felt his cheeks go hot because of all the praises. 

“I think it’ll be best to go to bed now…”

“Right. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.” 

~~

Another day went by, another night of the two sneaking off for Sokka to go skating and Zuko to watch him. Sokka was thankful for Zuko’s ability to wake up so early and had asked him to wake him up too the next day. He had been so tired the past few days but he still didn’t want to upset his grandmother and sleep in way too long. But apparently others started to notice. 

“You two look awfully tired,” Aang said when they both emerged from their shared tent. 

“Good morning to you too,” Zuko rolled his eyes.

“He’s right though, no offence. You two look like you haven’t slept all night!” Katara came to his defence. 

“We’re just having troubles with the change in climate,” Zuko quickly lied. “I’m not used to this cold, and Sokka probably isn’t either anymore. It’s hard to sleep when it’s this cold. ”

“Change in climate? Right, why do Aang and I not have a problem with that then? Besides, I thought you never got cold?” Katara raised an eyebrow. 

“I don’t know maybe-”

“I feel like you two are up to something,” she cut him off. Sokka became perhaps a bit too paranoid at this. Did she know they had been sneaking out? Did she know about the skating? She didn’t leave any time for replies though. “Zuko remember what I told you yesterday?”

“Of course.”

“I swear, if I’m the last one to find out…” without any more words she stood up and took Aang, who looked about just as confused as Sokka now, by the wrist and pulled him with her. 

Once they were out of sight, Sokka was still confused. “What was that all about?”

“It’s nothing,” Zuko said while looking away. 

“I can’t believe you still don’t want to tell me!” Sokka threw his arms up. “You know one of my secrets! Why can’t I know this one?”

“It’s embarrassing! I’ll tell you one day I promise, just not now.”

“Skating was embarrassing to me!”

“It’s not like you told me that either, you were just going to sneak out every night hoping I wouldn’t notice,” he defended himself.

“You’re not exactly helping yourself here, you’re lucky I’m not angry about you sneaking up on me like that!”

“Well, I’m sorry I was worried!”

“What did you think happened? I got eaten by a penguin?”

“You could’ve been,” Zuko knew how stupid it sounded of course, but he still didn’t want to give in. 

“Urg! Fine! Don’t tell me then!” Sokka now walked away as well, leaving the other just standing there. After a while he decided he had walked far enough and decided to sit down and just think for a bit. It was gonna be cold sitting there in the middle of the snow, but he just needed some space right now. It wasn’t the first time he did anything like this either. 

He knew it was childish, if Zuko didn’t want to tell him a secret he was allowed to do so. But something about it being a secret between him and his sister just made him very… jealous. Yes, Zuko had said he didn’t feel anything for her and he really didn’t look like he was lying either, and Katara had Aang of course, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling. Maybe getting over his feelings wasn’t going to happen after all…

“Hey, you okay?” Aang suddenly said from behind him.

“Yea, yea, I’m fine,” he said. “Where’s Katara?”

“She said she had something to discuss with Zuko…”

“Again? Maybe they should get married if they have so much to talk about!” It sounded petty and he knew it. 

“But, Katara is with me?”

“I know Aang, I know. Look I’m sorry, I’m just a bit on edge today, it’s fine.”

Aang sat down next to him. “What happened between you and Zuko?”

“Nothing!” he said way too quickly. “Honestly nothing important, only just now we had a discussion really, but it’s just unfair! He knows my secrets, yet I can’t know what Katara and him have been speaking about? What if they’re hiding something?”

“You don’t trust them?”

“Of course I do! It’s just… listen Aang, do you promise not to tell anyone what I will tell you now?” He looked around, just to make sure no one else could actually hear them.

“Sure.” Aang gave him his full focus. 

“I… might like Zuko?”

Aang didn’t react at all. “Of course you do! We all do! Even Katara likes him now. I know the friendship took a while to build up but, you don’t need to be embarrassed about it actually-”

“Not like that!” he facepalmed. “I meant… Like how I liked Suki and Yue,” he admitted. “I thought I could ignore it but I clearly can’t.”

“Oh…” Aang still didn’t seem fully surprised though. “Well, that certainly explains things.”

“What things?” Had he been that obvious?

“You talk a lot with each other, sometimes you’re just gone without telling us about it. You two act very differently around us than around each other, that’s for sure.”

“Hey! That could just be a friends-thing!”

“Yea, but there is always a lot of blushing involved from the both of you as well!” And then he added more quietly “and it also explains Katara’s and Toph’s murmuring about you two being ‘oblivious’ and ‘blind’ every time you’re gone.”

“Oh,” he didn’t really know what to say. Maybe he had been a lot more obvious than he thought, and according to Aang, so had Zuko. Was he really that oblivious? Or did his friends just imagine things? 

“You really think he feels the same way?” he tried to not sound too hopeful. 

“I don’t know, I’m pretty oblivious to those things as well… But, now I look back on it, I certainly think there’s a good chance!”

He smiled. Maybe those were just the words he needed to hear. “Thank you Aang! I have an amazing idea!”

“I’m glad I could help,” Aang smiled.

~~ 

Sokka and Zuko didn’t exactly have a lot alone time that day as the four decided to help Grangran with cleaning up. Still, they pretty much had been ignoring the awkward tension from this morning acting like nothing ever happened. Once they were done, Sokka couldn’t wait until they got back to the room.

“Listen Sokka, I’m sorry about this morning but-” Zuko began. 

Sokka cut him off quickly  
“It’s fine! Honestly! I shouldn’t have been so pushy about it.” 

“Oh. Okay,” he said a bit awkwardly, clearly not expecting that answer. “So all is good then?”

“Of course,” the other confirmed. 

After a while, Zuko spoke up again. “Are you going skating tonight?”

“I was planning to, but I got an even better idea. You have about the same shoe size as me right?” Sokka sounded way too excited all of the sudden. 

“yes…” Zuko said, knowing where this was going.

“Great! I was just thinking, I have an old pair of skates you’ll probably fit... They don’t give a lot of support anymore, which is why I got new ones, but they should be okay for a beginner. We could go skating together?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” the other looked uncomfortable.

“Why not? It’s an amazing idea if you ask me,” he said confidently. It had almost been like the conversation with Aang had totally changed him.

“That’s because it’s your idea!” he sighed. “You want to keep this a secret right? How are you planning on keeping this a secret if I break my legs tonight? Like I said I can barely walk on ice.”

“Well, if you had listened to me you’d know skating can actually be easier than walking on ice. Besides, I’ll hold you and make sure you won’t fall,” he smirked. 

This time Zuko blushed and he felt even felt more confident. He had been scared and embarrassed about his feelings towards the other but after his conversation with Aang, he felt like there was almost no way this could go wrong. Unless Aang was wrong of course, but he tried not to think about that. Aang said Katara and Toph thought so too after all, the chances of all three of them being wrong were pretty small. He had been so confident with Suki and Yue and it had worked, so perhaps this approach would also work for Zuko. 

“Okay, but you better help me up if I fall.” Zuko said quickly. 

~~

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” Zuko said. He had just tied his skates and was almost too afraid to even get up on his feet, but he also wasn’t very keen on the idea of just sitting on the ice for too long. 

“I’m a smooth talker,” Sokka winked. “Besides, this is important to me, I want you to feel why. Here, take my hand.”

Zuko took his hand trying to stand up as elegantly as possible, clearly not working and almost falling right onto Sokka. “See, I can’t even stand up!” Zuko would’ve made an arm movement to prove his point if he weren’t too busy clinging to Sokka’s hand with both of his in order not to fall. 

“Come on, it’s okay. Just...glide. I’ll skate backwards and pull you,” he took his other hand as well and started skating, perhaps a bit too fast for the other boy. But hey, that was the best way to learn right? Show no fear. 

With Sokka skating backwards and Zuko forwards, they were now facing each other. Both were looking at each others face a bit too much, and at the ice a bit too little.

“Shouldn’t you be looking where you’re going?” Zuko suddenly said after a bit, startling Sokka, who had been just enjoying the moment, not really thinking of anything. 

“I know this ice very well, we’re going in big circles but I know there are no bumps anywhere near. That’s why I chose this spot to practice.” he assured him. “besides, looking at the ice actually isn’t really a good thing anyway. You don’t look at the ground either when walking, right?”

“And what if there are bumps now that weren’t there before?” Zuko questioned. 

“Then you can be my eyes. You can see where I’m going right?”

“Right.” he didn’t seem too sure though. 

After a while, Sokka decided it was time for the next step. “Okay we’ll stop now and-” while he stopped himself, he had totally forgotten Zuko didn’t actually know how to stop on the ice yet, resulting into them bumping into each other, Sokka just keeping the both of them from falling by throwing his arms around Zuko. He couldn’t help but notice how close they were now. Maybe this was the perfect timing to-

“I’m sorry,” Zuko said but didn’t pull away yet. 

There was a long pause where neither of them moved or said anything, and just looked at each other. 

“I need to tell you something, well I-” he started. 

And then something happened that Sokka definitely hadn’t been expecting. Zuko leaned in and suddenly the feeling of Zuko’s lips on his was too much to handle. He couldn’t help but be a little in shock, both because he was planning on kissing Zuko first and because he got so overwhelmed for a second, but quickly realized that if he wasn’t gonna do something soon, Zuko would probably take it as a rejection. Everything stood still, he didn’t even close his eyes, something which me mentally scolded himself for and then leaned in as well, just enjoying the moment, not thinking about ‘what ifs’ and ‘buts’ because Aang had been right and Zuko did like him and made the first move and everything was perfect in that moment. 

“I’m sorry,” Zuko suddenly pulled away, looking everywhere but at Sokka.

“What?” he got confused. He had kissed the other back right? Was he such a bad kisser that it felt like he didn’t want it so Zuko took it as a rejection? 

“I shouldn’t have…” he started. 

Zuko really thought he didn’t want this himself? he had to do something quickly, but also be smooth about it. “No, you shouldn’t have,” Sokka let go of Zuko and took his face in his hands so the other would be looking at him again. He leaned in, now kissing Zuko first. He noted how warm Zuko’s lips were, which in hindsight, was pretty logical considering everything else about him seemed to be both figuratively and literally hot. This kiss lasted longer, it was sweeter and warmer, and was pretty much perfect in every way if you asked Sokka.

Zuko seemed really lost once Sokka pulled away though. “Now I’m confused, did you want me to do it or-” clearly still not getting the point.

“I can’t believe you’re this dense! But, you see, you stole my plan. I had a whole plan of how I was going to kiss you and then just as I’m starting my little speech as preparation, you kiss me first?” he said accusingly but couldn’t help but smile meanwhile.

“Oh… I’m kind of sorry then, but not really.” he smirked. “I guess I am pretty dense though, but so are you. I thought I had been obvious about all of this for much too long.”

He felt his cheeks go hot, but by the looks of it, so did Zuko’s. They again, just stood there for a moment, not saying anything, just looking at each other.

“I think you can skate holding only one hand now,” Sokka said, taking one hand in his and almost pulling the other forwards. Zuko had clearly forgotten about the fact that they were actually on skates, almost tripping forwards in the process.

“Hey, I wasn’t ready!” he complained. 

“This is the only way you will learn.”

“With kissing between every step? Well, that certainly worked, I love ice skating now.” Can we do this every day? 

Both smiled at each other, before looking forwards back at the ice again. Sokka started gradually picking up a bit more tempo meanwhile.

“You want to know what Katara said?” He said after a while.

“Yes please.”

“She thought we were already together and that we were hiding it. She was offended, thinking she’d be the last one to know and that we didn’t trust her enough to tell. Then she gave me this whole talk about how I better not break your heart or she’d break my bones. I couldn’t even get in any words! After she was done, which lasted a lot longer than I would’ve wanted, I tried denying it but then she just got upset saying she ‘couldn’t believe how blind we were’ and how it was ‘actually painful to watch’. That’s why I thought I had been much too obvious as well.” Zuko explained/

“I can’t believe she tried to mendle with our relationship like that,” Sokka said, but wasn’t really surprised either. 

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” he smiled a bit. 

“Yea,” he had to agree. “Wait, Aang also gave me a kind of talk like that. Well, way less scary and way more subtle but still… Do you think they planned it?”

“I guess so…”

“I don’t know if we should be thankful or angry at them.” he laughed a little. 

“Let’s think about that tomorrow, let’s enjoy this for now,” Zuko said quietly.

“Yea, let’s,” Sokka stopped skating again, making sure he actually stopped Zuko as well this time, but still wrapped his arms around the other to pull him closer nonetheless. “We have better things to do now,” they smiled and leaned in again.


End file.
